1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to card insertion systems and methods and, more specifically to card insertion systems and methods in which encoded data on the card or carrier are verified as to accuracy or as to matching one another.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the present invention is adapted to automatically insert so-called xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d cards 30 to which are attached to each an integrated circuit chip, or IC chip, 32. The chip 32 protectively embedded in the card, as shown by broken line, but has two rows of four input/output electrical terminals, or contacts, 34 accessible on a front side 36 of the smart card 30, at a preselected IC chip terminal location, as shown in FIG. 1A.
The IC chip has encoded account information relating to a particular account such as a credit card account including the name of the account and the account number. The IC chips in commercial use are also known to include other information including the account address, the number of cards issued, the identification of the card issuer""s name, etc. which are intended to be permanently stored. In addition, the smart card chip 32 has pre-encoded information such as account balance, credit limits, etc. which are altered during use after issuance.
The smart card 30 also includes the account number 38, the account name 40 and, optionally, the account address embossed on the card in embossed alphanumeric characters. Other information, now shown, such as expiration date, year of account opening, etc. is also sometimes embossed on the smart card 30, all at different data locations on the card.
In addition, the smart card includes the account number encoded in bar code 44, on the front 36, or encoded in bar code 46 on the back 45 of the smart card 30 or on both the front 36 and the back 46 at different locations on the card spaced from each other and from the other card data locations.
Further, as seen in FIG. 1B, the smart card 30 includes a magnetic strip, or mag stripe, 48 at another data location on the back 45 which has pre-encoded account information including account name, account number, etc.
Referring now to FIGS. 2A and 2B, the automatic card insertion system of the present invention selective mounts the smart cards 30 of FIGS. 1A and 1B to carrier forms, or carriers, 50 to form smart card packages 51. As best seen in FIG. 2A, the carrier forms include account information including the account number encoded in bar code 52. The carrier form 50 also has the account name and address printed on the carrier at one or more carrier print locations 54 and 56. As seen in FIG. 2A, the carrier form 50 is folded to protectively cover the mounted card 30 to form a card package 51 suitable for mailing in a standard see through envelope through which the account name and address on the carrier can be read.
It is of the utmost importance that incorrectly pre-encoded cards not be sent out to the account owners or that correctly prepared cards not be inserted into carrier forms 50 which do not have account numbers at bar code 52 which match the account number of the card. For this reason, it is known to compare the account number read from the carrier 50 at bar code 52 with the account number read from the embossed characters 38 of the card 30 or at the magnetic stripe 48. It is also known to compare the account data read form the card 30 with prestored account data stored apart from the card and the carrier which is used to encode the card data to confirm that the card has been correctly prepared.
While these known card insertion systems work successfully, they lacked a certain degree of versatility. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,544 noted above, all data read from the card was required to be compared not only with the account data stored in memory but also with each other and with the account data read from the card. Even if a user desired to eliminate some of the comparisons being made to enhance processing speed or speed of operation, selective elimination of comparison steps was not possible.
Another shortcoming of known insertion systems which functioned with pre-encoded smart cards is that no means is provided to either read the IC chip 32 or to compare data read from the IC chip with any other data either stored in an account data memory or read from other data locations on the card 30 or read from the carrier 50. Accordingly, in known systems, there is nothing to prevent inserting a pre-encoded smart card 30 into a carrier 50 which has account data encoded in the IC chip 32 that does not match account data read from the other data locations on the card 30 or which does not match the data read from the carrier. In addition, it is unknown also to read bar code at both bar code locations 44 and 46 for verification purposes.
It is therefore the principle object of the invention to provide an automatic card insertion system for inserting smart cards into carriers with a verification system, having means for reading encoded information stored in an integrated circuit computer chip carried by each of the cards to be inserted; and means for determining whether a card has been correctly prepared for insertion into a corresponding carrier including means responsive to the chip reading means for deciding whether the information stored in the chip has been correctly encoded, and means responsive to the determining means for rejecting incorrect cards.
Also, the object of the invention is obtained by providing a method of automatic verification in an automatic card insertion system for inserting smart cards with integrated circuit computer chips carried by the cards, comprising the steps of (a) reading encoded information stored in an integrated circuit computer chip carried by each of the cards to be inserted (b) deciding whether the information stored in the chip has been correctly encoded in response to the chip reading means and (c) rejecting cards decided to have been incorrectly prepared.